I'm a freelance writer, grad student, and night owl. I share weekly actions anyone can take to fight back against 45's administration. Twitter: @nightowlactivst Member of the Action Alliance: actionalliance.co

2/14/2017

Nightly Actions for Tuesday, February 14, 2017

UPDATE
I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day today. Things are moving very quickly, and it can be hard to keep up with all of the important news surrounding 45's administration every day. If you haven't subscribed to the Daily WTF yet, I highly recommend it. The site has a new tool you can use to search for news related to a specific topic or keywords. You can also find it on Facebook and Twitter. Learn more and subscribe here: https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/

Also, just a reminder that the group of call-to-action websites of which I'm a member is now called the Action Alliance. A complete list of all members and links to their websites can be found at our new website: https://www.actionalliance.co/Table of Contents

45's Ties to Russia - "Flynnghazi"
The big news yesterday was that National Security Advisor Michael Flynn resigned after it was revealed that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other top White House officials about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. Today, the White House reported that 45 knew that Flynn had misled officials for weeks, contradicting his statements that he was not familiar with the report. A member of the Senate Intelligence Committee has called for an exhaustive investigation into 45's Russian connections. This could be the first step on the road to his impeachment. Here's how you can help get the investigation started.

Last week, ICE agents raided homes across the country and arrested over 160 people. Meanwhile, 45 shrugged off reports that his infamous border wall will cost much more and take much longer to build than expected. On February 4th, a federal court denied an appeal to reinstate 45's unconstitutional Muslim ban, but it has not yet been rescinded. The atmosphere of fear and hate against immigrants and refugees in the U.S. is palatable. Here's how you can help support them and fight against 45's xenophobic policies.

Call, fax, or write a letter to your governor. State governors have the authority to take many steps to protect immigrants in their states, from restricting the use of state funds to arrest or detain immigrants to lobbying the federal government to change its policies. Use the links below to find your governor's contact information and tell them to protect immigrants in your state from federal immigration policies:

Call or fax your state legislators. Several major cities, and many smaller municipalities, across the U.S. have declared themselves "sanctuary cities," which means that their local police departments have pledged not to participate in immigration checks and detentions. Some states are supporting these efforts through proposing legislation that facilitates sanctuary city efforts; other states are proposing legislation to block state funding for these cities. Research what is happening in your state, then use the links below to call or fax your state legislators and urge them to support/implement sanctuary city initiatives:

Tweet 45 and your members of Congress. Use this form to automatically Tweet 45 and your members of Congress to support of refugee resettlement and reject the Muslim ban:http://www.aila.org/takeaction#/27

Steve Bannon, NSC: Bannon is a white nationalist whom 45 appointed as his Chief Strategist and has now placed on the National Security Council (NSC). This is an unprecedented politicization of the Council and opens up the probability that decisions will be made on the basis of politics rather than intelligence and security calculations. Use this form to email your senators and tell them to get Bannon off the NSC:http://action.winwithoutwar.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=20919

Mick Mulvaney, Office of Management and Budget: Mulvaney is an ultra-conservative tea partier who has called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme," wants to "end Medicare as we know it," described the government shutdown in 2013 as "good," questions whether "we really need government funded research at all," and voted to let the Violence Against Women Act expire. Sign this petition to tell the Senate to reject Mulvaney's nomination:http://action.citizen.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=13422

Title X: The House is about to vote to overturn President Obama's rule protecting healthcare for more than 4 million people who rely on the Title X family planning program for birth control and other care. Use this form and script to call your representative and tell them to vote no on the resolution to dismantle the Title X rule:https://www.istandwithpp.org/call/titlex/house

Paternal Consent Laws: The Oklahoma legislature just advanced a bill out of committee that would require a woman seeking an abortion to first obtain written permission from her sexual partner. If this bill is passed, women, even those in abusive relationships, would need sign-off from a man before obtaining basic reproductive healthcare. Sign this petition to say no to paternal consent laws: http://actnow.prochoiceamerica.org/sign/170213_consentlaws

Climate & Health Meeting: Thursday, February 16th, at 9am ET/6am PT, The Climate & Health Meeting will be held at The Carter Center in Atlanta, GA. The meeting is an effort by former Vice President Al Gore and several environmental organizations to provide a crucial platform for the diverse stakeholders in the public health and climate communities to come together around solutions. If you can't make it to the meeting, you can watch a livestream on the event's web page. Sign up to be notified when the livestream begins here:https://www.climaterealityproject.org/health

#Resist: Meetup, an app for finding social groups of pretty much any interest, just announced that it's joining the resistance. While it previously maintained an apolitical stance, the company announced in an email today that "after the recent executive order aimed to block people on the basis of nationality and religion, a line was crossed," and they now feel a "duty to spark more civic participation." That's why they've launched their #Resist campaign to help members of the resistance get together locally. Find an upcoming #Resist meetup near you here:https://www.meetup.com/pro/resist/

Congressional Recess: Next week, February 18th to 26th, members of Congress will leave Washington, D.C. and return to their local areas. This is the perfect time to attend townhall meetings or demand that your members of Congress hold townhall meetings. Use the links below to find upcoming townhalls or call/fax your members of Congress to ask for one:

Phone Call - Anti-protest Laws: Legislators in 10 states have proposed laws that make it easier to put protesters behind bars, brand them as terrorists, let people get away with hitting them with their cars, and allow law enforcement to use "any means necessary" to get them out of the way. Use this form to call your governor and demand that they publicly commit to vetoing any legislation that threatens protesters:http://www.weekly-resistance.online/past/protectProtesters.html

Petition - Protect Transgender Youth: Late Friday night, 45's administration immediately dropped its objections to a nationwide hold on Obama era protections for transgender youth, from participating on sports teams to accessing restrooms during the school day to protecting a student from being outed as transgender by a teacher. Sign this petition to tell 45 and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to protect transgender youth:https://act.hrc.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1954&ea.campaign.id=64554

Petition - 45's Budget Cuts: 45's budget plans to cut social safety net programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. There is no plan for jobs, but there are plans to cut money for food stamps and housing while offering a major tax giveaway to wealthy corporations. Sign this petition to tell Democratic leaders to hold the line against 45's budget cuts:https://act.credoaction.com/sign/trump_cuts_pda/

Petition - 45's Business Council: Recently, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick left 45's council of business leaders amid public outrage over the Muslim ban. However, several of America's most prominent corporate leaders remain on the council, including the CEOs of Tesla, Disney, IBM, and Pepsi. Sign this petition to tell them to stop enabling 45's agenda:https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Trump_CEOs

Postcard Avalanche - Paul Ryan: Much like one of my senators here in Pennsylvania, Speaker Paul Ryan doesn't want to hear from his constituents. His phones are always busy, his voicemail is always full, and he won't even hold a townhall. As Speaker of the House, Ryan has a lot of power over 45's agenda. UltraViolet plans to drive a truck full of postcards to his front door to help make Americans' voices heard. Fill out this form to send a postcard to Ryan about the topic of your choice, whether it's protecting the Affordable Care Act, defending Planned Parenthood, or just standing up to 45:https://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/paulryan_postcards/